Komatsu
'Komatsu ' is the Head Chef working for the six-star Hotel Gourmet, a restaurant owned by the prestigious IGO and is the secondary protagonist of Toriko. He is Toriko's ever enthusiastic yet timid chef partner, who despite his weakness is greatly interested by what he finds in his travels with Toriko. As a result, he tries to overcome his fear and does his best to help. At the beginning of the series he was only a five-star chef of little to no recognition but upon making many gourmet achievements he rose to the rank of six-star and has made it into the prestigious IGO Chef Ranking at number 88, thus being recognized as one of the best chefs in the world. Appearance Komatsu wears a chef uniform when he is at work. He generally wears khaki shirts and pants while traveling along with Toriko, though his clothing may vary given the conditions of the surroundings, like wearing a rider suit to Ice Hell and Vegetable Sky, and wearing a full body bullet proof suit in Death Falls. Personality Komatsu is a very friendly young man who cares deeply about his friends and his cooking, and always does his best to stay cheerful despite his natural cowardly disposition and highly emotional personality in most situations, because of this he often comes off as childish and innocent and some may even mistake him for a young child when these traits are combined with his small stature, but he always does his best to be brave and strong despite his nature. He also tends to break out in tears very easily even over simple matters or when happy, a clear sign of how emotional he can be. Because he is otherwise normal, he'll write a will whenever he comes along on one of Toriko's hunts. As time went by, he became braver with each new adventure, to the point where he was willing to fight Starjun even though the Sous Chef fought against and defeated Toriko. He is shown to be a very calm and humble person who always tries maintain his composure when not in dangerous situations, but he is frequently surprised or shocked by Toriko's behavior, such as when Toriko always eats all of the food during a meal (a recurring gag in the series) and usually reacts in a rather comical fashion when he is shocked. He is influenced and inspired by Toriko and he is shown to have a goal of becoming the best cook, which is his motivation for going on adventures with Toriko. Despite appearing scared at times, he is actually very brave, brave enough to face life threatening beasts and will stand up for himself even in the face of death, such as demanding that Starjun give him his knife back and blatantly claiming that he believes Zebra shouldn't be pardoned so easily after bringing several species to extinction (albeit, before knowing they were all dangerous ecosystem destroying creatures) while knowing full well that Zebra could hear him. It is shown that he is a highly skilled and competent chef, capable on carrying out delicate procedures such as the removal of a Puffer Whale's poison sack. He is also able to create delicious plates from any food given to him, and he has such a large knowledge of foods that he knows which foods would work well together. He is also very observant, being easily able to discover edible organisms in the area. He has also demonstrated the unique ability of making specially cooked ingredients easy to eat and make, showing his excellent talent in hearing the "voice of ingredients". He has managed to impress all of the "Four Heavenly Kings" and all four have protected him and looked out for his well being. Toriko noted he has skills even higher than five-star chefs, Coco was surprised and stated that Komatsu's skill is most likely world class, Sunny seems to be in love with the way Komatsu works as a chef since it produces the "harmony" in food that Sunny holds in such high regard and even once tried to make him his combo partner, and Zebra is impressed with Komatsu's willingness to tell the truth despite being so afraid of him (as well as the food he cooks). Due to his overall open personality and honesty, Komatsu is one of the few people who is able to get along amicably with all Four of the Heavenly Kings, despite their differing opinions and ideals. In fact, three of the four have already shown interest in forming a combo with him, (Toriko, Zebra and Sunny). Toriko also stated that there is a possibility of the Heavenly Kings going on adventures together, but only if Komatsu is there with them. He also has managed to impress several people who have famous/infamous or legendary status with his skills as a chef and many have even acknowledged his great skill, such as Setsuno the Gourmet Living National Treasure, Ichiryuu the President of IGO, Melk the First (not yet in person but through his knife) and Melk the Second, Smile the top class gourmet architect, even Starjun, one of the vice head chefs of the Bishokukai, Livebearer, the former boss of the Underground Cooking World and even some of the top 10 chefs in the world who have outright called him a genius. As well as his skills as a chef and his courage in the face of danger, another strong factor of Komatsu's personality is his genuine kindness and consideration, he willingly came into close contact with Coco despite knowing of his poisonous body to alleviate Coco's sense of isolation, and showed to a self-conscious Melk the Second through his culinary skills and her knives that she was living up to her father's name as the world's best sharpener. He is also currently the only chef to successfully recreate the Century Soup. He keeps a baby Wall Penguinwhich he has named Yun as a pet that contains the key ingredient for the soup in its saliva and he deeply cares for the little one like family. Chef Skills Komatsu, at first glance is a normal person. Indeed, he has no super-human abilities, of strength or any other sense that most Bishokuya, and quite a few top ranking Chefs have and is quite meek, attempting to hide or run away in the face of danger. Before meeting Toriko, Komatsu was thought to be a decent Chef, working at the five-star Hotel Gourmet as the Head Chef. However after meeting and adventuring with Toriko and experiencing the Ingredients in their natural environment, his true abilities blossomed, eventually turning his 5-star Hotel into a 6-star, and then gaining 88th place out of 100 in the IGO Chef Rankings. His skill as a Chef is acknowledged by all four of the Heavenly Kings, and though he has formed a Bishokuya-Chef Combowith Toriko, two other Heavenly Kings (Zebra and Sunny) also wish to form a Combo with him. Furthermore, many legendary people like his peers among the worlds top 100 Chefs, artisans (Melk 1st and 2nd) and Bishokuya (Jirou,Chin Chinchin and Ichiryuu) have recognized his skill. Indeed,Livebearer stated that Komatsu's genius far surpasses those of the Heavenly Kings, while the Kings themselves believe his skills are greater than those of Tengu Brunch, the worlds 3rd best Chef. Even the Bishokukai boss, Midora, a massive gourmand who regularly feeds on top class Gourmet WorldIngredients, willingly admitted his food was delicious, after eating a banquet made by Komatsu using low class Ingredients. In fact, Midora actually laughed aloud after consuming the feast, something even the original Century Soup was incapable of doing. Both Setsuno, Toriko and several others attribute this to not be due to skill or experience but due to his strong ability to hear the Voice of Ingredients and innate ability to love and be loved by the Ingredients in turn. As such, his skills have risen to the level that in his very first Cooking Festival, he managed to make it to round 4, a feat considered to be exceptional for any first timer. Food Honor Food Honor is a mental concept in which, through continuous appreciation towards food, one increases their ability to utilize their skills, thus cutting down on useless movements and unnecessary energy consumption. After less than a week of training at Shokurin Temple, Komatsu, along with Toriko, showed rapid progress through training which would normally take people months to accomplish. Even before he finished his training, he gained enough delicate skill to instinctively find the poison sac in a Puffer Whale and remove it so effortlessly that the fish did not turn gold, because it was not even aware that the sac had been removed. With Chiru, the world's 15th ranked chef and Head Chef of Disappearing Cuisine, he was able to learn how to cook the Bubble Fruit in 1 week. It should be noted that Chiru herself is incapable of cooking the Bubble Fruit before he help her, and not only that, Komatsu was able to come up with method to make all the ingredients in Disappearing Cuisine edible even by normal people without Food Honor, leaving Chiru amazed and a bit jealous of his unbelievable skill. Showing that he may have as much skill or more so than the 15th best chef in the world. Simplified Special Preparation Cooking Using Food Honor, Komatsu's talent truly blossomed, and he has developed a skill that is revolutionizing the world of gourmet cooking. He is able to take Special Preparation Ingredients and develop methods for cooking them that are so quick and simple, any moderately skilled chef could use them. Using this skill, he was able to cook the food of Disappearing Cuisine, the majority of which were Super Specially Prepared Ingredients (Ingredients which mainly seem to have a special method of eating it), in a way that any customer could eat without having to learn Food Honor. Furthermore, in five minutes he invented a method for cooking the Specially Prepared Ingredient, Medicinal Mochi, that could be completed in three minutes by an averagely skilled chef, and, having five extra minutes, he included a method to improve the quality and taste of the Mochi in the process. Hearing the "Voice" of Ingredients Komatsu is able to hear the "Voice" of Ingredients, which not many Chefs are able to do. Other than allowing him to find Ingredients that suit Komatsu very well, as well as instinctively knowing how to prepare them, not much is known about this ability. Komatsu has also gained a vast amount of experience in this ability after re-creating the Century Soup. When Toriko and Coco went looking for Ichiryuu's Full Course Menu, Komatsu was able to hear the voice of the 7 ingredients they managed to find. Food Luck Food Luck is thought to be an extremely rare attribute, that helped guide Komatsu to find and prepare various ingredients. His Luck is so great, that it trumps even the Four Heavenly Kings super-human senses, as shown when, on more than one occasion, Komatsu has been the first to find the Ingredients. Melk Knife Made from his previous knife that had broken, Melk the Second made theDerous Knife from the single tooth of the legendary dragon Derous, which is said to have become king of the world with its only fang. The knife has shown to have enough cutting power to cut mountains in half. His previous knife was one of the four knives to have surprised Melk the First upon seeing it. Before it was broken and reforged, Starjun was also impressed with his knife and he almost took it from him. It is revealed in Cooking Festival Arc that Komatsu can use this utensil as a Revitalizing Kitchen Knife, thus he is able to perform the Dark Technique for healing wounds and regeneration of lost limbs. Derous Intimidation When Komatsu uses the knife against an animal, the sheer power within the knife will present the illusion of the Derous Dragon itself, scaring most animals into running away. This was first seen being used against an Escarjaw when Komatsu was lost inside the Gourmet Pyramid. Knocking Though not as good at knocking as Toriko or other characters, Komatsu knows enough to knock the Shining Gourami, though it took him a few tries. Other Equipment Komatsu is often provided with various items to protect himself from the dangerous environments that he encounters, usually by Toriko. He carries various containers, like Gourmet Cases and Gourmet Rucksacks, so as to collect and preserve the Ingredients he finds during his adventures with Toriko. He also carries basic cooking supplies so as to prepare any Ingredient he finds. Category:Protagonists Category:Society